The Mail

Bollingen Prize, not sports, should have been featured

Ladies and Gentlemen:

UB is striving to become a great public university, the Berkeley of the east coast. Great universities are measured by the greatness of their academic programs, not by the quality of their sports activities. The prominence given the latter in American culture can be traced to TV commercialization and trivializes how university performance is, and should be, measured.

I was therefore quite appalled to see the cover page of the most recent issue (Feb. 11, 1999) of the Reporter. The top splurge was a large picture of the UB women's hockey team practicing at dawn, while the award of the prestigious Bollingen Prize in Poetry to Robert Creeley, Samuel P. Capen Chair in Poetry and the Humanities at UB, was relegated to a short column on the side. The Reporter banner should have been the Creeley award and "Hockey at Dawn" should have been left for one of the back pages.

Even The Buffalo News, not the greatest newspaper by any measure, reported the Creeley award quite prominently in its Thursday edition and followed it with an eloquent editorial on Friday.

The Friday Spectrum didn't even care to comment.

It is crucial that we make sure to stress what is most important at our university, namely, quality academics and the Reporter can, and must, lead the way.

Counseling Center offers information on assisting rape or assault victims

To All Members of the Campus Community:

Sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, stranger rape and date or acquaintance rape are monumental problems for our society. Unfortunately, college campuses are not insulated from these harsh realities. It is likely that as a member of a college campus community, you will know someone who is or will be a survivor of rape, assault, abuse or harassment. There are important steps we can take to assist someone who has been victimized. If someone who has been raped or assaulted chooses to come to you, as a friend, for support and assistance, there is much you can do to help.

Note: Both men and women get raped and assaulted. The suggestions below are framed in terms of the women, since more women report these incidents than men. However, the suggestions are for ALL rape and assault victims.

Listen:
- Allow her to express her feelings without interruption.
- Be patient with silence, as she may be slow in talking.
- If she needs help continuing, try repeating back what she has said.
Be reassuring:
- Believe her. A great fear of survivors is that they will not be believed.
- Reinforce that the incident was not her fault, no matter what the circumstances.
- Comfort her as much as possible verbally.
- Be aware of physical contact, as she may not want to be touched, but you can always ask if you can hug her. Don't treat her as if she is contagious.
- Provide things that make her feel warm and safe-a blanket, stuffed animal, hot tea.
- Make sure she has a safe place to sleep that night.
- Do not talk about getting revenge; focus your energy on her and her feelings.
Encourage her to seek help:
- Call Crisis Services hotline for professional guidance-834-3131.
- Go with her for a medical examination immediately; contact Center for Student Health at 829-3316.
- To preserve evidence, discourage her from changing her clothes or taking a shower.
- Help her get counseling to work through the trauma, even if the rape occurred some time ago but she still hasn't worked through it.